International DJs, a disco-gondola, art installations and a wine festival; even by Lech am Arlberg’s standards the opening of this year’s ski season in the fashionable Austrian resort was exceptional.
After previously slow starts to the season, resorts are pulling out all the stops this year to attract investors, with the locations that get the most snow gaining the edge. This is good news for Lech, which is linked for the first time by road and ski-lift to the most snowy village in the Alps — Warth am Arlberg. Warth (pronounced Vart) is a hamlet of 180 inhabitants at 1,495m (4,900ft) that receives a prodigious average of 10.5m of snow each year.
There has been a 2km-long gondola link between the two resorts since 2013. However, this winter the 4km road between them will also be cleared of snow — in the past this has been blocked by Lech to protect its exclusivity.
Skiers in search of a second home in reach of the Arlberg may now be tempted by property in Warth, which sells for a fraction of the price of that in Lech.
“New properties in Lech cost €20,000 to €25,000 [£17,000 to £21,000] a square metre, putting it on the same level as Kitzbühel, the most expensive resort in Austria, but Warth is €6,000 to €8,000 a square metre,” says Mark Smits, a partner at Mountain Residences, the developer behind the PURE apart-hotels in Austria.
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The PURE Warth complex will sit in an elevated spot at the top of the village and offer 29 ski-in, ski-out apartments priced from €385,000 — although the largest penthouse, costing more than €2 million, has already sold. Buyers have, so far, been German, Dutch and British.
The apartments, which are scheduled to be completed in 2018, come furnished with designer bathrooms and kitchens, underground parking and a ski locker. “We keep the boutique hotel style the same across the brand — contemporary, but not overly modern, so it will not age, but cosy with plenty of wood and fireplaces because people expect that,” says Smits.
“People who know the value of the Arlberg — a snow-sure, but controlled region with little new development — will invest in this project,” says Joanna Leverett, the head of international residential markets at Cluttons, the agency marketing the project. “There’s not much available to buy, so prices steadily climb and snowfall is at the front of people’s minds.
“It’s perfect for families who like the Arlberg — they can ski to Lech for lunch [it has more Gault Millau toques, the equivalent of Michelin stars, per inhabitant than any other resort in Europe] yet stay in a peaceful village,” she says. It is also 90 minutes from Innsbruck airport, to which British Airways started flying on December 4.
At the centre of Warth there’s a pretty church, a supermarket and a handful of restaurants and family-run hotels — but no doubt there is more to come.
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In the pipeline in the village is the ski-in, ski-out Secret Mountain (also known as the Lux-Alp) development, with 13 two-bedroom apartments for sale off-plan from €633,500 through Alpine Marketing and Savills; the properties include furniture and the option of underground parking and will be managed by the Lechtaler Hof hotel.
However, if you want bars, boutiques and lively restaurants on your doorstep — but only half the annual snowfall — you may prefer St Anton, where another apart-hotel, Mountain Spa Residences, offers 28 fully furnished ski-in ski-out apartments from €635,500 (through kristall-spaces.com). Elsewhere in Austria new lifts are driving buying trends, according to Giles Gale, of Mark Warner Property. “This month the long-awaited link between Zell am See and Saalbach opens up 220km of piste in the popular Saalbach Skicircus,” he says. “It’s a game-changer as it joins a dual-season family resort with ‘serious’ skier terrain, so buyers can enjoy the best of both worlds.” The agency is selling a four-bedroom penthouse in Saalbach for €675,900, or apartments in an apart-hotel in Zell’s Schuttdorf area from €277,000.
If another long-mooted link between the Tyrolean resort of Kappl and Lech happens in 2018, the resulting ski area, combining trendy Ischgl with the Arlberg, will be huge. And Brexit need not dampen buyers’ spirits. “While non-EU buyers in Austria need to form a company to buy a property, rumour has it that the Austrian government will make a dispensation for UK buyers, as it has done for citizens of Norway and Liechtenstein. They are important for tourism and property investment,” says Smits.